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Pavel Florensky and the Nature of Russian Religious Philosophy: Overcoming the Religious-Secular Divide

Pavel Florensky

Russian religious philosophy puts forward a sorely neglected model of the relationship between religion and secularism, which represents a conscious attempt to overcome the religious-secular divide as embedded in Western culture. Challenging the common assumption that this model reflects an anti-rationalist position, this project sets out to study religion and secularism in the writings of Pavel Florensky (1882-1937), one of the main representatives of Russian religious philosophy. Although specific to Russian culture in the 19th and 20th centuries, Florensky’s approach can help to address the issues shaping contemporary debates on religious and secular reason as well as questioning general Western assumptions about modernity. Crucially, the Russian model may facilitate a more adequate understanding of religion and secularism in a variety of non-Western societies.

Project Director:Clemena Antonova, Lecturer in Art History and Theory, American University in Bulgaria (Blagoevgrad); Former Visiting Fellow at the IWM